A tough loss, and a point guard's growing pains

The Pistons awoke in Denver on Thursday after what was likely a restless night for most of them, the nagging thoughts that always accompany a one-point loss making sleep elusive.

It is in such games as the loss to Portland on Wednesday when everyone has the game tape on an endless mental loop, agonizing over the one subtle moment amid a thousand that would have yielded a different outcome.

Rodney Stuckey probably had more to digest than anyone. Stepping on Nicolas Batum's foot when pivoting out of trouble in the first half, leading to a Rudy Fernandez breakaway dunk amid Portland's 8-0 run that chopped more than half of a 14-point lead away in less than two minutes. Dribbling stubbornly into a triple team and getting tied up by a 7-footer before losing the jump ball in a similar second-half turnover fest that fueled another Portland comeback from double digits. Charging into LaMarcus Aldridge at the basket instead of pulling up for a short jump shot and giving Portland another dose of momentum in its gathering comeback.

It's especially worth remembering, as the Pistons prepare for Friday night's game in Denver against the man who wrote their musical score for the past six years, that Chauncey Billups was 26 and a veteran of five full NBA seasons when he became Detroit's point guard to start the 2002-03 season. And, even at that, it was another good half-season before Joe Dumars felt certain that he'd found his point guard.

Rodney Stuckey is on the fast track to stardom, but sometimes the motor on even the fast track's belt needs fine tuning. Stuckey certainly wasn't awful against the Blazers: 13 points and seven assists are numbers the Pistons can win with on nights when one of Rip Hamilton or Rasheed Wallace is available to them, perhaps. But with both out, and so much of the offense dependent on Stuckey, Allen Iverson and Tayshaun Prince, the Pistons can't have two of the three combining to shoot 10 for 29 with 10 turnovers.

Flip Saunders wasn't always able to convey his insights in the most concise terms, but the man knew his basketball inside-out. And Saunders always insisted the keys to winning on the road were making your free throws and taking care of the basketball. The Pistons shot 9 of 16 at the line in Portland - and getting there only 16 times is another concern - and committed 14 turnovers, in itself not an egregious amount but critical in their timing and their perpetrators.

All of that, and the game still came down to four possessions in the final 80 seconds that all had to go against the Pistons to produce a loss. After Iverson made a beautiful play to set up Kwame Brown for a dunk - and Brown's solid play was one of the game's positive takeaways - the Pistons led 83-80.

Travis Outlaw then made a tough, spinning bank shot and made it while being blanketed by Tayshaun Prince, putting the pressure back on the Pistons. They executed admirably, handling Portland's trap that bedeviled them for much of the second half, and the possession produced an open 3-pointer for Prince from the side. It looked good but just rimmed out long with about 40 seconds left. But Antonio McDyess, gutting out another performance over a Gray's Anatomy assortment of injuries, willed his way to an offensive rebound to extend a critical possession.

Once again, the Pistons couldn't quibble much with the shot it yielded: Iverson in a trademark penetration of the lane. He launched himself backward instead of going straight up, and even though he's made a career of draining off-balance shots, he probably increased his degree of difficulty unneccesarily on this one. Still, it missed by a whisker, or the Pistons would have held a three-point lead with under 20 seconds left and reduced Portland's margin for error greatly.

Again, without Brandon Roy in the lineup, the Blazers went to Outlaw. This time, with Michael Curry having subbed in Arron Afflalo for Iverson at the timeout, the Pistons guarded Outlaw with Afflalo; Prince was guarding Rudy Fernandez. The Blazers cleared out for Outlaw and Afflalo, instead of forcing him right and into the lane where help could have arrived more quickly, allowed him to go left. It still proved a tough shot, Afflalo in his face and McDyess flashing at him in the last instant, but Outlaw drained it.

The Pistons still had eight seconds for the fourth and final critical possession. Once again, it was a shot they'd take 10 times out of 10 given the circumstances. Once again, it looked good when it left the shooter's hand. Once again, it rimmed away. Iverson got an elbow jump shot off cleanly, but on a night he shot 6 of 19, it wasn't in the cards.

If he had gone 7 of 19, the Pistons win. If they make 11 of 16 free throws, they win. If they turn it over 13 times instead of 14. ... They all had such thoughts, doubtlessly, on a tough night for sleep in Denver. Rodney Stuckey probably more than most.

They'll find a familiar face in Denver who can tell him all about the growing pains of an NBA All-Star point guard.

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